King of the Mountain: A Visitor’s Journal Entry
Grave of British Major Patrick Ferguson, King’s Mountain, South Carolina, Summer of 2014 I see where you fell, Ferguson. They tell me you were struck by a dozen bullets and dragged down this hill with…
Tag: Avellina Balestri
Robin Hood “Telling His Beads”: A Catholic Reflection on the Prince of Thieves
The legends of Robin Hood and his Merry Men exert a near universal appeal, and have done so for generations. From ballads to books to films, the daring rebel spirit of the Prince of Thieves…
Companion in Affliction: The Private Life and Wartime Trials Lord Charles Cornwallis
Lord Charles Cornwallis is a name that is inextricably linked with the British surrender at Yorktown and the end of the American Revolution in the popular imagination. Few think of him as more…
Snow White Sacrament
Beneath the dome A treasure sleeps As silent as the winds of love Proceeding from the darkest tomb White as the snows of winter’s freeze, White as the rays of summer’s blaze, A stillness penetrating…
Voice of a Kingdom
They ask me why I love this land, Then mock me for my lack of words; How can I define such a mystic thing, Bound by a cord that cannot be traced, Swelling in my…
An Author’s Note
~ by Avellina Balestri To each and every one of you Who feels my breathing through my words, Words fueled but not consumed by the fire in the head… I give you my heart and…
This Solitude Through Which We Go: Thoughts Upon the Nature of Hell
Hell, like Heaven, is in many ways set apart from our knowing, and as with all things that are so, we grasp it through metaphors and conceive it through hyperbole. It is the garbage dump,…
A Survey of Belief
A friend of mine attending a Bible college recently had to do a worldview survey for class. As such, she posted 17 deep philosophical questions about our worldview for us to answer. Interestingly, I found…
Glorying in Glass: A Review of Snow White and the Huntsman
Filming: Color Length: 127 minutes Genre: Drama/Adventure/Fantasy Maturity: PG-13 (for intense themes, scary images, and fantasy violence) Cast: Kristen Stewart (Snow White), Chris Hemsworth (the Huntsman), Charlize Theron (Ravenna), Sam Claflin (Prince William), Sam Spruell…
Authenticity and Expectation: Some Roots of Christian-Muslim Debate
There is something that I notice about Christian-Muslim theology debates that kind of runs on repeat. Basically, Muslims have a tendency to bring up Bible verses where Jesus is shown as praying, or emphasizing in…